Tornadoes · United States · Utah · 1998

F0 tornado, Layton, Utah, June 4, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Davis County on June 4, 1998, touching down at 5:00 AM MDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 4, 1998
Touchdown
5:00 AM MDT (11:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Davis County
Touchdown point
41.070, -111.970
Lift-off point
41.070, -111.970
Record number
595

What the Weather Service recorded

A storm caused mountain snow and valley rain in northern Utah. From .75-1.5" of rain fell along the Wasatch Front with several homes in Weber and Davis county experiencing flood damage. 13" of snow fell at the Snowbird Ski Resort. Funnel clouds were observed over Utah Lake and just south of the Great Salt Lake.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:02 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Salt Lake City I, UT (KSLC), 00:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. June 4, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salt Lake City I, UT at 00:00Z on 1998-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 162 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 1962 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Salt Lake City I, UT at 00:00Z on 1998-06-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
162 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
540 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1962 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
299 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Salt Lake City I, UT (KSLC), 12:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 33 km from the path. June 4, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salt Lake City I, UT at 12:00Z on 1998-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 113 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 1001 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Salt Lake City I, UT at 12:00Z on 1998-06-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
113 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
284 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1001 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hill Afb/Ogden (HIF), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
09:55 UTC51.844.6140° 4 kt1007.8
10:55 UTC51.844.6120° 5 kt1007.5
11:30 UTC51.844.6270° 8 kt1007.5-TSRA
11:59 UTC48.248.250° 8 kt1007.5-TSRA
12:20 UTC48.248.270° 10 kt1007.8-TSRAGS
12:40 UTC48.248.270° 8 kt1007.8-TSRA
12:55 UTC48.248.290° 7 kt1008.1-TSRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in UtahEvery tornado in Utah since 1950Warnings in force in Utah nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 1998

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 43:43 PM EDTF0Edgefield, SC0.250
June 46:30 PM EDTF0Chester, SC0.150
June 410:15 PM CDTF1Polk, AR15.5250$100,000
June 410:15 PM CDTF1Polk, AR21.0250
June 412:32 AM CDTF1Pulaski, AR5.2100
June 412:32 AM CDTF1Lonoke, AR5.0250
June 412:36 AM CDTF1Lonoke, AR3.5250

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.